Craig Pollock: Shifting Gears In Car Racing

Question: What is the name of Craig Pollock and Jacques Villeneuve's upscale club, restaurant, lounge, and bar in Montreal, Canada?

(You can find the answer at the end of this article.)

Oftentimes, the best decision one can make in life is to walk away from an opportunity. Then again, one need not have a degree in finance to know that, without risk, there can be no reward.

If you look at the business or sports landscape, no one understands this concept better than Craig Pollock, the man who orchestrated Jacques Villeneuve's meteoric rise to success and stardom throughout the 1990s.

For the past 25 years, Pollock — the Scottish-born teacher-turned-businessman — has served as Villeneuve's mentor, manager and business partner. While Pollock is confident to point out many of his coups, he is, to his credit, candid enough to point out that peaks come with valleys, and nowhere more so than in business, sports, and the world of open-wheel auto racing.

they go way back

The Pollock-Villeneuve association actually dates back many years; 1982 to be precise. In the early 1980s, Pollock was director of sports at the exclusive College Beau Soleil in Villars, Switzerland. It was there, that same year, that he met a young, bold and daring young Canadian named Jacques Villeneuve.

At the time, however, Pollock knew little about the young man, other than the fact that his father was the late, great, Ferrari driver, Gilles Villeneuve. Quickly, however, Pollock saw something in Villeneuve that stood out: character.

"On the first day of ski class, we were on a slope. I asked all the skiers, including Jacques, to give me three short, controlled turns... but Jacques took the mogul straight, the slope was the equivalent of a double diamond... it was then and there that it became clear that Jacques was an individual who went against the flow, and was absolutely sure of his own talent."

the taste of speed

While the pupil Jacques had a bright future ahead of him, it was Pollock, not Villeneuve, who first tasted the world of auto racing at the highest levels. After developing a business importing sporting goods into the German and Swiss markets, Pollock traveled to Japan to join Japanese Interhoba Group, where he became Managing Director of a subsidiary firm that controlled Formula 1 television rights in Japan.

It was this involvement that led to the duo crossing paths once again in the early 1990s, at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuki. "Jacques asked me to cross over and manage his career, which, at the time, involved racing in the Italian Formula 3 Series with PreMa Racing."

It was not the young Villeneuve's last name that convinced Pollock; au contraire, it was Jacques' individuality, intelligence and boldness that stood out: "Jacques was extremely intelligent in school and was always a talented sportsman, he had character and an incredible physical and mental talent." So the risk at the time was great, but manageable.

As a result, Pollock went with his gut, joined forces with Villeneuve and essentially bankrolled his early career, immediately transferring him to the Japanese Formula 3 series with Toyota Team Tom's. From there, it was only a matter of time for Pollock — the agent — to recognize that Villeneuve's true appeal and value would be found on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in Canada.